In order for electronic devices to communicate, a wireless or wired protocol (i.e., standard) defines hardware and software parameters that enable the devices to send, receive, and interpret data. Frequency division multiplexing or frequency division modulation (FDM) is a technology that transmits multiple signals simultaneously over a single transmission path, such as a cable or wireless system. Each signal travels within its own unique frequency range (carrier), which is modulated by data (e.g., text, voice, video, etc.).
Orthogonal FDM (OFDM) distributes the data over a large number of carriers that are spaced apart at precise frequencies. Recently, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) OFDM systems are gaining popularity. In either OFDM or MIMO OFDM systems, each OFDM transceiver implements Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) logic to extract frequency spectrum data from the incoming signal samples. Implementing a FFT contributes significant complexity to an OFDM transceiver. For example, in a 2×2 MIMO OFDM system, a straight-forward FFT implementation (i.e., using separate FFT components for each input/output) would double the gate count of the FFT logic.